en.Wedoany.com Reported - UK-based Highview Power is constructing a liquid air energy storage (LAES) plant in Carrington, near Manchester, which uses atmospheric air as the medium, replacing critical metals found in traditional batteries. Once completed, the facility will become the world's largest commercial liquid air energy storage plant, providing 300 MWh of storage capacity and 50 MW of power, with a continuous discharge duration of six hours, enough to meet the electricity needs of approximately 480,000 households, according to the company.
There is a mismatch between renewable energy generation and consumption patterns, making large-scale energy storage technology key to addressing this bottleneck. Highview Power states that its LAES technology can store energy for six hours to several weeks, filling the gap that short-duration batteries cannot economically cover. According to The Chemical Engineer, the cost of wind power curtailment in the UK reached £800 million in 2023, highlighting the scale of the problem this technology aims to solve. The plant is designed to convert surplus renewable electricity into liquid air for storage, releasing stable, clean power when the grid requires it.
The system operates based on a cryogenic process. Ambient air is cleaned, dried, compressed, and cooled to become liquid, stored in insulated tanks. The Chemical Engineer notes that the technology is based on the Claude process, which has been used for gas liquefaction for decades. Highview Power has adapted it for grid-scale energy storage infrastructure. When the grid needs electricity, the liquid air is pumped out, reheated, and expanded into high-pressure gas to drive turbines for power generation, without burning any fuel.
The main advantage of LAES technology is that the raw material is air itself, eliminating reliance on supply chains for critical minerals such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt critical minerals. The company also claims the system can operate for 40 to 50 years with no significant degradation, is modular and locally deployable, and does not require the geographical conditions needed for pumped storage hydropower. Additionally, the system can provide grid stability services such as voltage support and inertia.
The construction of the Carrington project is backed by £300 million in financing announced on June 13, 2024. The investment is led by the UK Infrastructure Bank and Centrica, with participation from the UK government, as well as investors including Rio Tinto, Goldman Sachs Power Trading, KIRKBI, and Mosaic Capital. The groundbreaking ceremony for the project took place on November 21, 2025, attended by Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester. The company expects the facility to begin operations in early 2026, creating over 700 construction and supply chain jobs.
The Carrington plant builds on a foundation of technical experience. Highview Power previously operated a 5 MW/15 MWh demonstration project in Bury, in the Manchester area, which was commissioned in 2018 and served as the first grid-scale demonstration of liquid air technology. The company positions Carrington as the first large-scale commercial plant and a foundation for future expansion in the UK and other markets.
The main advantages of this technology include long-duration storage, abundant raw materials, long lifespan, and grid service capabilities. However, The Chemical Engineer points out that the round-trip efficiency of long-duration solutions like LAES is typically lower than that of lithium-ion batteries and flow batteries, with significant energy losses during storage and recovery. The same analysis emphasizes that the Highview system partially compensates for this disadvantage through lower degradation, longer lifespan, and the ability to fully discharge stored energy.
